NBA free agent Malik Beasley is under investigation by the U.S. District Attorney’s office regarding gambling allegations tied to league games, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Sunday.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the matter.
“We are cooperating with the federal prosecutors’ investigation,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement released to the AP and other outlets on Sunday.
ESPN was the first to report on the investigation.
“There have been no charges against Malik,” Steve Haney, Beasley’s attorney, told the AP. “It’s just an investigation at this point. We hope people reserve judgement until he’s charged — or if he’s charged. It’s not uncommon for there to be a federal investigation.”
The probe into Beasley comes 14 months after the NBA banned Toronto’s Jontay Porter, who was linked to a prop bet investigation and eventually pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud.
This past season, The Wall Street Journal was first to report that Terry Rozier — then of the Charlotte Hornets — was under investigation for activity related to unusual betting patterns surrounding him in a March 2023 game.
Rozier, now of the Miami Heat, has not been charged with any crime, nor has he faced any sanction from the NBA.
Porter’s ban came after a similar investigation into his performance and “prop bets” — wagers where bettors can choose whether a player will reach a certain statistical standard or not during a game. The Porter investigation started once the league learned from “licensed sports betting operators and an organization that monitors legal betting markets” about unusual gambling patterns surrounding Porter’s performance in a game on March 20, 2024, against Sacramento.
The league determined that Porter gave a bettor information about his own health status prior that game and said that another individual — known to be an NBA bettor — placed an $80,000 bet that Porter would not hit the numbers set for him in parlays through an online sports book. That bet would have won $1.1 million.
Beasley signed last year with the Pistons, taking a one-year contract for $6 million in the hopes of cashing in this summer as a free agent. A second person, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity because no deal was announced, said Detroit was “very interested” in re-signing Beasley to a multi-year contract this summer. Those talks might be in jeopardy, given the uncertainty regarding the federal probe.
He made a single-season, franchise-record 319 3-pointers in the regular season. He helped Detroit make the playoffs for the first time since 2019 and end an NBA-record 15-game postseason losing streak in the first round against the New York Knicks.
Beasley averaged 16.3 points last season and has averaged 11.7 points over his career with Denver, Minnesota, Utah, the Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee and Detroit. He scored a career-high 19.6 points a game during the 2020-21 season with the Timberwolves.
The Atlanta native played at Florida State and the Nuggets drafted him No. 19 overall in 2016.